1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of protective collars for bottles, and, more particularly, is in the field of decorative drip-stop collars that may be branded and may also serve as gift cards to accompany a bottle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wine and other beverages are often purchased in bottles to be presented as gifts. Because of the shapes of the bottles, it is difficult to wrap the bottles and to attach gift cards. The wines or other beverages in wine bottles often have propensities to stain tablecloths and clothing because of residual amounts of liquids remaining at the tops of the bottles after the beverages are poured into glasses when served.
Various attempts have been made to avoid or at least reduce the propensity for dripping. For example, servers at restaurants and at parties often carry a napkin or small towel to wipe excess liquid from the tops of the bottles after each serving. To avoid this inconvenience, products have been proposed to attach to the bottles. For example, strips of absorbent material have been wrapped around necks of bottles and held in place using string, wire, or adhesive. Tubular sleeves produced from elastic fabric have been placed around the necks of bottles. One proposed solution uses an encapsulated band of absorbent material adhered directly to the necks of bottles.
The previously proposed solutions have issues that substantially reduce their effectiveness in the mass retail market. For example, many of the previously proposed solutions cannot be produced at a cost-effective price so that the products can be used as a disposable point of sale (POS) piece by retailers. In particular, retailers are not interested in using items that result in an increase of the retail price of a bottle of wine or liquor.
Generally, the devices in accordance with previously proposed solutions are not “pre-assembled” because the devices are not designed to fit over the many different sizes and styles of flanges that are found at the tops of the many varieties of bottles used by the wine and liquor industries. The delivery of the devices to the retailers in an unassembled condition presents problems for retailers. For example, a person in the retail store must assemble and/or affix the device to the bottle at or prior to the point of sale. This assembly time may reduce the sales volume or may result in the devices not being used when the sales person is in a hurry. Furthermore, the devices may be assembled incorrectly and/or inconsistently from bottle-to-bottle, which would result in a non-uniform presentation to the consumer.
Many of the devices in accordance with previously proposed solutions are not effective in the mass-retail market because the devices are generally attached or affixed to bottles in a manner such that the devices cannot be easily removed without being damaged and therefore the devices cannot be re-used. One potential problem for retailers is that if a device were printed or marked to indicate a certain brand or type of wine or liquor and was then affixed to the wrong bottle, the device could not be easily removed to place the device on the correct bottle and to place the correct device on the improperly marked bottle. The value of a device that cannot be transferred from one bottle to another is less than for a device that can be used on multiple bottles.